Chapter 5 Summary

Sam Houston, the Democratic senator from Texas, and former Tennessee governor at age 35, was known as a strong leader and a bit of a loose cannon. Houston was the first senator from Texas. He was also a military hero because he had been Commander in Chief of the volunteer Texas soldiers who fought for Texas' independence in the battle of San Jacinto against the Mexican army. The Texans had been underdogs in this battle, and had won splendidly, making them heroes. Houston, their leader, became a household name because of it.

Houston had supported the Missouri Compromise in 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill sought to repeal much of those compromises by calling for an allowance for states to decide their own slavery laws across a territory that swept Iowa to the Rockies. Southerners were very much for this bill because...